In this post, we will examine the character of Tom Buchanan from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. We will take a look at who he is and his actions within the novel and how they tie into the themes that Fitzgerald was trying to portray in his novel. This post forms part of my series of posts celebrating the 100th anniversary of the publication of The Great Gatsby.
Nick’s first meeting with Tom
We are first introduced to Tom right at the beginning of the novel when Nick goes to his and Daisy’s house for dinner. Daisy is Nick’s cousin and Tom is her husband but from Nick’s description we know that Nick and Tom have known each other since their days at New Haven, when they were at college together.
Nick recounts that Tom “among various physical accomplishments, had been one of the most powerful ends that ever played football at New Haven—a national figure in a way, one of those men who reach such an acute limited excellence at twenty-one that everything afterward savors of anti-climax.” This tells us that Tom was clearly one of the college jocks or top sportsmen at school, but was so successful that anything he accomplished in his adult life has paled in comparison to him, suggesting that his peak came then and he hasn’t really achieved much since. This is further supported where Nick describes Tom and Daisy as drifting “here and there unrestfully wherever people played polo and were rich together”. This gives us an insight into Tom being quite lazy and comfortable in his life of luxury.
We also learn that Tom comes from old money and was from a family that were “enormously wealthy – even in college his freedom with money was a matter for reproach—but now he’d left Chicago and come east in a fashion that rather took your breath away, for instance he’d brought down a string of polo ponies from Lake Forest. It was hard to realize that a man in my own generation was wealthy enough to do that.” This does also suggest a sense of Tom being irresponsible with money as he sees it as disposable, even in the eyes of people within his own social circle.
When Nick arrives at Tom’s house we are given the following physical description of Tom:
“[Tom] was a sturdy, straw haired man of thirty with a rather hard mouth and a supercilious manner. Two shining, arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face and gave him the appearance of always leaning aggressively forward. Not even the effeminate swank of his riding clothes could hide the enormous power of that body—he seemed to fill those glistening boots until he strained the top lacing and you could see a great pack of muscle shifting when his shoulder moved under his thin coat. It was a body capable of enormous leverage—a cruel body.”
This description seems to highlight a theme of illusion vs reality. From the outside physical description Tom is conventionally attractive, however Nick is quick to describe his body as “cruel”, suggesting that there is a brutishness and darkness behind the mask of physical perfection. This is further supported when Nick tells the reader that his voice is a “a gruff husky tenor, added to the impression of fractiousness he conveyed. There was a touch of paternal contempt in it, even toward people he liked—and there were men at New Haven who had hated his guts.” This shows that people in his own social circles despised him and also tells us as a reader that perhaps we shouldn’t like him either, for all his physical attractiveness.
In the chapter, we also hear some of Tom’s views, in particular his racist viewpoints. He is reading the book Rise of the Coloured Empires and believes that “civilization is going to pieces” and that “the white race will be utterly submerged” which is a white supremacist viewpoint that he views white people as better than black people. Nick also tells us about Tom interrupting Jordan at the dinner table, which could be read as being misogynistic as he doesn’t seem to value what Jordan has to say.
We also learn in this chapter that he is having an affair with a woman in New York, showing his lack of morality as well and presenting him as a negative character to the reader.
Nick meeting Tom’s mistress
In the second chapter, Nick goes on the train with Tom who decides spontaneously to get off in the Valley of Ashes and introduce Nick to his mistress Myrtle.
In this chapter Tom shows a significant disdain for people in lower social classes than himself, explicitly in his treatment of George but even in some of his behaviour towards Myrtle.
When he arrives at Myrtle’s husband George’s garage it is clear George is expecting Tom to sell him a second hand car and that George is somewhat desperate for the sale to go ahead, so Tom has him under his foot and seems to relish in his power over him. When George comments that it is taking Tom’s man a long time to get the car ready, Tom says “No, he doesn’t” and adds “And if you feel that way about it, maybe I’d better sell it somewhere else after all”. Also after the interaction with George, he comments to Nick that Myrtle easily gets away by saying she is visiting her sister and says that “he’s so dumb he doesn’t know he’s alive.” This shows Tom’s complete disregard for the lower classes and the struggles they go through.
However, some of his behaviour towards Myrtle also reveals his disdain for the lower classes and that he truly doesn’t see her as his equal. Nick comments that when Tom was away from Daisy and with Myrtle he would let the fact he was having an affair be “insisted upon wherever he was known.” In other words he doesn’t care who knew he was having an affair which does show Tom’s attitudes towards women in general are poor as he is being disrespectful towards his wife. However whenever he was with Myrtle he would frequently “[leave] her at a table, sauntered about, chatting with whomever he knew”. This shows he doesn’t care for Myrtle’s opinions and it is just to be seen with her that is enough.
Similarly Nick describes their apartment as small and sparsely furnished which shows Tom is only putting the bare minimum into the relationship to keep Myrtle on side as his mistress. Tom also treats Myrtle very poorly during the party and embarrasses her in front of the McKee’s by saying she can introduce Mr. McKee to her husband ““so he can do some studies of him.’ His lips moved silently for a moment as he invented. ‘ ‘George B. Wilson at the Gasoline Pump,’ or something like that.’”” This shows how he doesn’t care for her feelings and also sees George as almost sub-human by saying that Mr. McKee can do a “study” on George.
Of course, the chapter also ends in an explosion of violence where Tom makes a “short deft movement” and breaks Myrtle’s nose “with his open hand”. This violent attitude towards Myrtle shows again his disdain for the working classes and the power imbalance in Myrtle and Tom’s relationship, that for Tom she is just a distraction and nothing more.
The hypocrisy of old money
When Nick goes with Gatsby to meet Meyer Wolfshiem at the restaurant he is surprised to bump into Tom. They meet and Tom asks him why he hasn’t called, telling him “Daisy’s furious” because of it. He also shakes hands with Gatsby who is nervous by the encounter and quickly disappears.
Whilst Tom represents old money and getting money from inherited wealth, the fact he is in the same environment as Gatsby and Meyer Wolfsheim could subtly imply that his money isn’t necessarily cleaner and that old money may flirt with corruption and even illegal methods of gaining money just as much as Gatsby’s ‘new money’ does.
Tom also views himself as morally superior to Gatsby and due to Gatsby’s embarrassment sets up a potential conflict between the two characters which comes to fruition later on in the novel.
Tom’s multiple affairs and opinions of women
When Jordan recounts Daisy’s first meeting with Gatsby and how she ended up married to Tom, she also recounts a specific encounter that suggests Myrtle isn’t Tom’s first (or last) mistress and also possibly some of his opinions of women in general.
The passage is:
“A week after I left Santa Barbara Tom ran into a wagon on the Ventura road one night, and ripped a front wheel off his car. The girl who was with him got into the papers, too, because her arm was broken—she was one of the chambermaids in the Santa Barbara Hotel.”
This clearly implies that Tom was with someone who wasn’t Daisy, which shows a lack of respect on his part for Daisy in that he is happy to cheat on her with other women.
There are also some similarities to Myrtle, the woman is a chambermaid so is likely to be of lower, working-class status too which implies a power dynamic in this relationship that is similar to the dynamics we saw in the second chapter where Tom takes Nick to meet Myrtle. Tom takes advantage of these women and uses them for his own gains.
Also an interesting detail is the broken arm, although Tom is described as uninjured. Whilst it could have been the case that Tom just wasn’t injured, there is also the question of how the chambermaid broke her arm, given how we saw Tom was physically violent to Myrtle when he broke her nose. Could it be he views these women with so much disdain that he is happy to be physically abusive to them? It is a darker side to his character that cuts through the elegant, sophisticated image of coming from old money and supports Nick’s earlier observations of him having a “cruel body”.
Tom’s encounters with Gatsby
After Daisy and Gatsby reunite and seemingly begin an affair Tom has two interactions with Gatsby which are recollected by Nick.
In the first, Tom is out riding with Mr and Mrs Sloane near Gatsby’s mansion. A very awkward exchange takes place where Gatsby reminds him of their brief meeting when Gatsby was speaking to Meyer Wolfsheim and also tells Tom that he knows Daisy. Mr and Mrs. Sloane want to leave straight away and Gatsby invites them to dinner in his mansion but they refuse but out of politeness reciprocate the invite but Gatsby doesn’t pick up on the insincerity of the invite and agrees, which causes the three to quickly leave and Tom to dismissively say “Doesn’t he know she doesn’t want him?”
This interaction shows a few aspects of Tom’s character. He is very dismissive of Gatsby being from new money, perhaps seeing it as a threat because times were changing and Gatsby represents social and class mobility and the blurring of class lines whereas Tom clings to old money privilege. Indeed he seems to mock Gatsby for not understanding the social cues that come from being in the East Egg elite during this conversation.
There is also a slight hypocrisy as we know Tom was in the same location as Gatsby with Meyer Wolfsheim and presumably was up to no good there as well which suggests Tom is criticising Gatsby for behaviour that he indulges in himself.
We also see some of Tom’s attitudes towards women, when he wonders how Daisy could know Gatsby and says “ I may be old-fashioned in my ideas, but women run around too much these days to suit me. They meet all kinds of crazy fish.” In his view, women should be nothing more than what Daisy says, beautiful little fools. However it could also imply Tom might be suspicious and feel a little threatened by Gatsby or at least this wealth.
Indeed later on in the chapter, Tom makes quite a few disparaging comments about Gatsby’s party which he and Daisy attend. Nick indeed comments on the atmosphere being “unpleasant” and a “pervading harshness” in the air which he at least slightly blames on Tom’s presence. Tom also claims that he and Daisy “do not know a soul there” as well as commenting on people coming from new money as being nothing more than “big bootleggers”.
Bootlegging was the illegal production, transportation and sale of banned goods, particularly alcoholic beverages which took place during the Prohibition era in America during 1920 to 1933, a time where alcohol was heavily restricted and banned. Tom is making a somewhat dismissive comment here that Gatsby’s money must have come from criminal activities. Whilst this may be true, it does show a disdain for Gatsby and his coming from new money. Furthermore, by implying that he and Daisy don’t know anyone there, it suggests they do not mix in the same circles and perhaps aren’t of the same class as the West Egg partygoers.
The tone of the comments could also imply a jealousy and a need to exert dominance over the situation as Gatsby’s parties clearly show his wealth and Tom feels threatened that a man from a lower class background like Gatsby could actually be a rival for his wife’s affections. It is also showing a hypocrisy as we know Tom is having an affair and perhaps has had multiple affairs but now that Daisy is potentially having an affair with someone else, he feels far more protective and possessive, revealing a double standard which he lives his life by.
Confronting Daisy and Gatsby
After Gatsby realises Daisy didn’t enjoy the parties Gatsby abruptly stops them and it appears they don’t see each other again until Daisy invites Gatsby around to their house for dinner. It is at this moment that Tom seems to piece together that Gatsby and Daisy are having an affair. During their dinner the pair lock eyes and in the moment it appears “she had told him that she loved him, and Tom Buchanan saw. He was astounded.” It is also at this point he looks at Daisy as “if he had just recognized her as someone he knew a long time ago.”
In this moment he has to face up to the reality that he could actually lose Daisy and this gets worse when he, Nick and Jordan ride Gatsby’s car to the city and stop at George’s garage where George tells Tom he plans to move West with Myrtle. As Nick observes “his wife and his mistress, until an hour ago secure and inviolate, were slipping precipitately from his control.” At this point Tom is actually very vulnerable and could lose both his wife and his mistress.
It is also at this point out of desperation we see the worst in him. Whilst at their house, he greets Gatsby with “well-concealed dislike”, perhaps his sophisticated East Egg upbringing helps him to hide this. However by the time the characters arrive at the Plaza Hotel, Tom is in a far more aggressive and confrontational attitude. He goads Gatsby, firstly about his “old sport” phrase asking him ““All this ‘old sport’ business. Where’d you pick that up?””. He then questions if he is actually an Oxford man before going in with the big confrontation that the “latest thing is to sit back and let Mr. Nobody from Nowhere make love to your wife”. Here he tries to take control of the situation and forces a confrontation between himself and Gatsby.
However he also reveals his hypocrisy when he follows up this statement with “nowadays people begin by sneering at family life and family institutions, and next they’ll throw everything overboard and have intermarriage between black and white.”. Not only does this show Tom to be profoundly racist once again but it shows his hypocrisy, Tom has had multiple affairs and largely treated Daisy as nothing more than an object, he sees it as his entitlement and his role as a man to cheat but not for Daisy to do the same.
Yet there is a sign of desperation in Tom as he tries to regain control of the situation, perhaps realising how close he is to losing Daisy, especially as Daisy begins to bring up past events such as his “little spree” in Chicago, which probably was alludes to more affairs that we don’t know about. Tom begins to recount moments in his relationship and shared history with Daisy, things we aren’t let into fully as the reader such as the “day I carried you down from the Punch Bowl to keep your shoes dry?”. This causes Daisy to falter and admit to Gatsby that she did love Tom as well, something which Gatsby cannot abide by as his dream is to have Daisy as she was years earlier when they first met.
This also shows a manipulative side to Tom’s character which has much darker consequences following Daisy’s hit-and-run accident that kills Myrtle. Tom probably realises that Daisy is the one driving but when Myrtle dies, Tom isn’t that concerned or really upset at her death, instead he goes to George to cover his tracks:
““I just got here a minute ago, from New York. I was bringing you that coupé we’ve been talking about. That yellow car I was driving this afternoon wasn’t mine—do you hear? I haven’t seen it all afternoon.””
This shows Tom’s disregard for women, especially those of the lower classes who he sees as disposable and shows his moral decay that he would lead George to believe Gatsby was driving which probably begins the chain of events that leads to Gatsby’s and George’s downfalls.
Returning to the old elite
Following the accident, Nick spies on Tom and Daisy through their living room window for Gatsby, who is waiting outside in case Tom does something to Daisy. However Nick observes the two of them talking over cold fried chicken and comments “They weren’t happy, and neither of them had touched the chicken or the ale—and yet they weren’t unhappy either. There was an unmistakable air of natural intimacy about the picture, and anybody would have said that they were conspiring together.“ It seems at this point the two have decided something and have possibly agreed to give their relationship another try and go back to their roles as part of the wealthy East Egg elite.
Tom and Nick’s final meeting
In the final chapter, Nick has his final encounter with Tom, which is stated to have taken place in October so based on Gatsby’s death being in early autumn is about a month or so after his death.
The chance meeting takes place at a jewellery store where Nick initially doesn’t want to shake his hand which causes a confrontation where Nick asks Tom what he said to George that afternoon. Nick predicted that George when he was looking for Gatsby went to Tom’s house and that it was Tom that gave him Gatsby’s name which he did.
As he describes it ““He came to the door while we were getting ready to leave, and when I sent down word that we weren’t in he tried to force his way upstairs. He was crazy enough to kill me if I hadn’t told him who owned the car. His hand was on a revolver in his pocket every minute he was in the house—”” Tom also remains defiant, suggesting that he did nothing wrong, that Gatsby “had it coming to him” and that he “threw dust…into your eyes just like he did Daisy’s” and “he ran over Myrtle like you’d run over a dog and never even stopped his car.” It is unclear if Tom knew if Daisy or Gatsby was driving but he wants to believe it was Gatsby so he can absolve both himself and Daisy of blame.
Nick finally reflects on Tom and Daisy’s behaviour, concluding “they were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness” this is one of the most famous lines in the novel and perfectly encapsulates Tom’s character as being destructive, entitled, arrogant and yet completely shielded by his status as a member of the American elite.
Those were my thoughts on the character of Tom Buchanan from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, let me know in the comments down below what are your thoughts on his character. Up next we look at Nick’s love interest, the golfer Jordan Baker.
